


Drabbles from Shadow World 100

by la_muerta



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13438068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_muerta/pseuds/la_muerta
Summary: Collection of 100-word drabbles I wrote for the LJ communityShadow World 100.





	1. Scars

**Author's Note:**

> This is an on-going drabble collaboration. I'm only cross-posting my own works here, but go over to the LJ community to show the other authors some love! Other authors in this project include: [Accal1a](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/works), [alistoney](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alistoney/works), [astudyinfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/works), [AtraEris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtraEris), [Causteek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Causteek/works), [janusa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janusa/works), [RedOrchid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/works), [S_Horne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_Horne/works), [stupidnephilimlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidnephilimlove/works), and [TeachMePatience](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeachMePatience/works).

 

She wears the scars on her neck like a shield.

Simon watches her moving behind the bar – talking, laughing, making faces at people she doesn’t like, winking at the ones she does. She winks at him, and he can’t help the goofy grin that spreads across his face. What happened to her wasn’t fair, but Maia hasn’t allowed it to break her – or more likely, it broke her sometime in the past before he knew her, but she hasn’t allowed it to keep breaking her.

She’s strongest at the place where she broke, and he thinks he might love her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #1, free challenge.


	2. Scent

Ollie, Luke’s annoying new partner, always wrinkles her nose when she has to share his car. Hell, if it smelled bad to a mundane, what did she think it smelled like to a werewolf?  
  
He should get one of those plug-in car air fresheners, but he keeps forgetting to – or so he tells himself.  
  
Under the overpowering stink of wet dog that Luke has resigned himself to, the car is an olfactory landmine. The dry odour of charcoal and paper that is Clary, the reek of dead things that is Simon now.  
  
And the lingering, fading scent of Jocelyn’s shampoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #1, free challenge.


	3. To Call Enchantment Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #2, colours.

Scarlet silk sheets. Burgundy cravat. The rosewood dresser in the corner of Magnus’ bedroom. Curtains the colour of spilt wine. That Persian rug in the living room, the one that matches the raw brick pillars. Red fireballs bursting from his hands when he gets mad. Crimson streak in his dark hair. Coral eyeshadow.

Alec knows Magnus is partial to all the various shades of red – after all, he certainly looks good in it. (He looks good in everything, in any colour.)

But in the privacy of his own head, Alec wonders what Magnus might look like in gold, one day.


	4. Nihil Nisi Mors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #2, colours.
> 
> We might have, uh, been in a bit of an angst-off.
> 
> Trigger warning: Major Character Death

Mundanes get married in white.  
  
When Magnus and Alec got married, they got married in the colours of their own respective traditions – Alec in shadowhunter gold, Magnus in warlock blue. Like the blue sky above a field of ripe wheat, like the summer sun reflecting off the ocean – even in different colours (even from different worlds, from different centuries), they had made a striking pair.  
  
Perhaps it is fitting that they now lie side by side dressed in white, eyes bound with white silk – the one time their different traditions agreed with each other.  
  
Only mundanes get married in white.


	5. Green Will Mend Our Broken Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #2, colours.
> 
> Trigger warning: Major Character Death

She had hoped that he would be around to meet her child.  
  
Alec had always loved children, and between him and Magnus they had amassed their own little family of foundlings over the years. At least there was that.  
  
Alec and Magnus would have been amazing uncles to her child, probably the favourite, cool uncles. (And Jace would have pouted, and turned it all into a competition he was never going to win.)  
  
She hugged Alec’s favourite green sweater against her chest and swollen belly, and prayed to the Angel that maybe her little Alexandra would have his hazel-green eyes.


	6. Gold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #2, colours.
> 
> Trigger warning: Major Character Death

Alec still remembers vividly the first time he saw Magnus’ warlock mark. Magnus was so fearful, so worried that somehow Alec would be disgusted by them, that Alec might actually be _scared_ of him. It had broken Alec’s heart.  
  
Alec will always remember the last time he saw Magnus’ warlock mark. It is seared into his brain, so that even when he closes his eyes he can still see it: those golden eyes, open and glassy, the glamour fallen because Magnus had gone beyond caring who could see them. There are no words to describe the state of Alec’s heart.


	7. Green Fingers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #2, colours.
> 
> This was written in penance for all the angst :P

The first time Simon brings her flowers, he is so nervous he crushes the stems, fingers green by the time he hands them to her. (His face is about the same shade of green.)  
  
It's probably because he's forgotten his new vampire strength, and she's trying not to laugh until suddenly she doesn't feel like laughing anymore. She's the reason he's a vampire. She's the reason he died.   
  
"Crap. Clary, do you have wet wipes? Plant sap gives me rash- wait. Can I still be allergic to plant sap?"  
  
Clary laughs. No matter what happens, they will always be them.


	8. Shiver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #3, weather.
> 
> Trigger warning: Addiction/substance abuse

He's been dead for almost 80 years now, and in that time he's forgotten what it's like to feel many things - the warmth of the sun; the chill of wind, snow and rain; the simple pleasure of another person sitting close enough to touch, of soft skin and body warmth. (Vampires are not exactly big cuddlers.)  
  
The night wind is cold. He doesn't have a jacket - he gave it to Isabelle - and with her warm blood coursing through his veins, for the first time in the longest time, he can feel the chill.   
  
He tells himself that's why he's shivering.


	9. Sunny Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #3, weather.

"Simon?"   
  
"Out in the yard, Mum!"  
  
Elaine Lewis finds her son reading - shirtless, out in the sun - and stares. After all these years of nagging at him to go outside, and Simon refusing, citing skin cancer statistics, this is certainly unexpected. To be honest, he could really use a tan, though - recently he has been looking so pale, he almost seems bloodless.   
  
(A memory flashes in her mind like quicksilver, there and gone in a second - _of blood, of a rat_. She has lost it before she can think to grab at it, left with only a sense of dread.)


	10. Allegro Con Moto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #4, Music.

She has felt it since she went on her first mission when she was eleven - the thrill of the hunt. Blood pounding in her ears in a steady staccato, the occasional adrenaline rush when their quarry grows suspicious and turns around to check behind its back.   
  
Then the way her heart speeds up when they've got the demon cornered and it's finally time to fight, the joy of feeling and hearing her whip sing through the air, the satisfaction of a job well done when the demon disintegrates in a burst of ichor.  
  
She was born to be a shadowhunter.


	11. Reminiscence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #4, Music.
> 
> The piano piece that Jace (and later, Jonathan) plays on the show, _Nocturne in C-sharp Minor_ , is also known as _Reminiscence_.

There is a piano in the apartment, but he never knew the _thing_ could play.   
  
It starts with tentative notes, like it is remembering something, then a surer rendition of the familiar piece when it gains confidence. Later, there is even a bit of a flourish in the trills. It plays the piece beautifully, sorrowfully, with its graceful, borrowed fingers - _his_ fingers. He wonders if it is possible for monsters to have a soul.   
  
He coughs, tasting blood, and accidentally topples something in the darkness of the closet. The playing falters, and Sebastian forgets everything except the memory of pain.


	12. The Sound of Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #4, Music.

They are walking home from the Hunter's Moon, and Alec can still remember the first time they did this, after their first date - neither of them talking, lost in their own heads and fears. The silence between them then was a discordant note strung tight, heavy with potential heartbreak.   
  
Now, they have walked this path so many times before, hand in hand. There is no hurry to get home, their steps light, and they have found themselves in each other's hearts. Neither of them speak; the silence between them is that of words that do not need to be spoken.


	13. Waltz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #4, Music.

Magnus scoops out the rice while Alec chops up the vegetables. Magnus tosses and stirs the rice with the rest of the ingredients in the heavy iron wok, while Alec checks on the chicken in the oven. Alec gets the plates out of the cupboard so Magnus can dish out the food.   
  
They have dinner together, fork and spoon clinking gently on the plates, laughing and talking. After that, they do the dishes together - Alec washes and Magnus dries, because it was the other way round yesterday.   
  
Theirs is a slow dance of the ordinary joys of an ordinary life.


	14. No Kissing The Doorman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #6, Alternate Universe. (I missed the previous week's challenge.)
> 
> The _Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List_ AU.

Magnus wishes he knew for sure if the doorman at his apartment has a thing for him.   
  
Alec is always polite to everyone, but Magnus thinks he smiles a little wider at Magnus. He doesn't have to help Magnus carry his things to his doorstep. It's not his job to comfort Magnus when he's down.   
  
One day, there's a new face at the front desk, and Magnus regrets not asking Alec for his number.   
  
There's a knock on his door. He opens it to find Alec with roses and a grin.   
  
"We're not allowed to date the tenants," Alec explains.


	15. Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #6, Alternate Universe.
> 
> _Shadowhunters_ Episode 1x10: _This World Inverted_ AU

His magic had returned, slowly but surely, and the thrill of having such an essential part of him back had been exhilarating.  
  
Exhilarating enough to make him forget all about the overconfident pretty boy from the party, who’d turned up on his doorstep one day.  
  
“I hear you do card readings. I’d like to have my fortune told,” the boy leered at Magnus. (How had he managed to make that sound so suggestive?)  
  
“Sure. What do you want to know?” Magnus asked, letting him in.  
  
“I want to know if I’m going to get lucky,” he smirked. “Preferably with you.”


	16. We Loved With A Love That Was More Than Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #6, Alternate Universe.
> 
>  **Trigger Warning** for Major Character Death. Based on the poem _Annabel Lee_ by Edgar Allan Poe.

“Magnus!” he heard Alexander scream, voice full of fear – then a terrifying yell of agony.  
  
“Alexander!” Magnus fought back, but there were too many of them.  
  
They shoved him into the coffin and shut the lid, and Magnus felt them carry him down, down, down. As the dirt rained against the lid, he clawed at the sides, gasping Alexander’s name with his dying breath.

 

> _And so, all the night-tide, we lie now side by side_  
>  _Oh my darling — my life — my love, right where we died_  
>  _In our sepulchre there by the sea —_  
>  _In our tomb by the sounding sea._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Angst of the Lemon Squad has declared that this needs to be a full fic, so I guess you'll be seeing more of this!


	17. The Curse of The Mummy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #6, Alternate Universe.
> 
> _The Mummy_ AU, as requested by [irisadler](http://archiveofourown.org/users/irisadler/pseuds/irisadler). Coincidentally, [Thealmostrhetoricalquestion](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion/pseuds/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion) has just started [a full-length fic in this AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13849446)!

“You can’t open that sarcophagus!” Alec snapped.  
  
“Why the hell not?” asked Sebastian, the snotty young man funding the expedition.  
  
“The inscription there says that if you do, you will unleash a terrible a curse,” Alec frowned.  
  
“I’d listen to him. He’s the one who can read ancient Egyptian,” Magnus drawled, winking at Alec.  
  
“Superstitious nonsense,” Sebastian sneered. “Why should I listen to _you_?”   
  
“I may not be an intrepid adventurer and treasure-seeker like Mr Bane, but I’m proud of what I am.”  
  
“And what would that be?” Magnus asked, amused.  
  
Alec drew himself up haughtily. “I... am a _librarian_.”


	18. The Truth About Cats & Dogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #6, Alternate Universe.
> 
> Animal AU ^^;

They meet every morning at the fence that separates their houses. There is a loose board in the fence that gives Alec just enough room to wriggle through, but Magnus is disdainful of it and would rather just jump gracefully to the top, balancing on nimble paws, before jumping down to Alec's side.   
  
They prefer Magnus' side of the fence, though. Magnus' human even leaves some water and biscuits out for Alec sometimes. They spend many happy hours chasing, digging, exploring.   
  
"Did that big dumb dog from next door sneak over again?!"  
  
"Oh, hush. I think kitty's made a friend."


	19. Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Challenge #7, Hobbies (in the canon universe)

“Raphael, are you stress-baking?” Magnus frowned as he swept into the vampire’s personal quarters in the DuMort. The whole apartment was filled with the sweet scents of chocolate and sugar.  
  
“The home that Rosa is at is having a bake sale,” Raphael explained.  
  
Magnus eyed the racks on the kitchen counters warily. Each rack was filled with cooling blood-red cupcakes. “What are these?”  
  
“Red velvet cupcakes.”  
  
“I hope this is food colouring.”  
  
“What else would it be?” Raphael asked, with the hint of a smirk.  
  
“…never mind.”  
  
Let it never be said that Raphael didn’t have a sense of humour.


End file.
